Tough reality check today on this whole #richmondmarathon2018 thing. This morning I did the @dcroadrunners #nationalcapital20miler as my first 20 of the cycle. I knew heading into the training cycle it would difficult to balance my coaching responsibilities with training. Then add in the fact that I left self-employed consulting and its flexible hours to accept a full time job recently, and it all got that much harder. My training hasn’t been “bad” - I have had some really good workouts, some less so - but the strain on my schedule has been overwhelming at times, and the volume and consistency have not been there. And there’s nothing like a really #longrun to make that all obvious to you. Today I set out at my #easyrun effort and did that pretty comfortably for about 14 miles. Then it all started to fall apart. By the time I got to 17, I started taking a 1-minute walk break every half mile. If I couldn’t pass today’s test, with perfect weather and following my time tested nutrition strategy to a T, that simply doesn’t bode well for a #bqmarathon goal race in 6 weeks. The good news is, my fitness is probably just fine, maybe even excellent, for a strong #halfmarathon. Hell if I could do 20 today with nearly 3 hours of #timeonfeet, I should certainly be able to handle a hard 90-95 minutes for 13.1 miles. I just need to maybe do a little more #speedwork and increase the intensity of my #temporun workouts. So I’m leaning towards making the switch to the half. I’d rather have a good race at that distance than another disaster #marathon like the one I had at #njmarathon2018. I don’t want to repeat that ever again. And there will be other marathons. #runblr #fitblr #marathontraining #fallrunning #mcmillanrunning #mcmillanrunteam #damnthatwasalongpost https://www.instagram.com/p/BoW01PPFl7y/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1s2gjwdux1rq0